Turmeric.
The warmth of the sun. The carrier of section weight, photography frames, secondary calls to action. Restrained as a text background; lavish as a presence.
BRAND-KIT · v1 · JUNE 2026SARASVATI INSTITUTE · PORTLAND, OR
The ancient, sacred art of nourishing the body, mind and spirit through connection to nature.
SUSAN BASS · FOUNDER & LEAD TEACHER
THE BRAND, IN ONE LINE
Awakening the wisdom of the ancients that is already inside of you.
Soul nourishment. Real and true and time tested. The work the school has been doing since 1999, now the record carried across the school, the book, the app, and Susan as teacher.
SPICE · 01 OF 09
SPICE · 02 OF 09 · SINGLE SIGNAL ACCENT
Hibiscus.
The one color that carries rhetorical weight every time it appears. The primary call to action. The italic word in a hero. The leading rule on a section terminator. Never splashed; always earned.
SPICE · 03 OF 09 · GRAVITY
Aubergine.
Where the brand carries its seriousness. Hero overlays, footers, advanced-program pages. The mark of the institution speaking with its full weight.
SPICE · 04 OF 09 · SPRING + SUMMER
Sage.
The verdigris of new green. Seasonal pulse for spring and summer. The mat behind a photograph that needs the calm of growing things.
SPICE · 05 OF 09 · AUTUMN + WINTER
Sandalwood.
The warm rich brown of cinnamon, wood, root. Seasonal pulse for autumn and winter. The fill behind a lineage icon. The illustration line.
PALETTE · INDEX
Nine tokens, named by role.
Surface, text, accent. Role-based naming so the app's dark mode in Phase 7 inherits without rename churn.
--surface-paper
#FDFBF6
--surface-paper-deep
#F5EDDC
--text-ink
#3A2E1F
--text-ink-soft
#6E5D45
--accent-turmeric
#D69E2E
--accent-hibiscus
#9B1B30
--accent-aubergine
#4A1E3F
--accent-sage
#7A8B6E
--accent-sandalwood
#B68C5A
SUSAN'S VOICE · VERBATIM
You crave nourishment from something that is real and true and time tested. Something that awakens the wisdom of the ancients that is already inside of you.FROM HER OWN WRITING · TOP 10 WAYS YOU KNOW
TYPOGRAPHY · 02 OF 12
One classical serif, one warm sans, one institutional mono.
All free. All Google Fonts. Fraunces does the dramatic AND the editorial body italic. Source Sans 3 carries prose. IBM Plex Mono brings gravity to labels.
Soul nourishment.
The wisdom of the ancients that is already inside of you.
Study Ayurvedic spirit & science.
The power of the group and community provide a base and a bolster to this process. A sweet special community, built for this purpose.
Used for everything that isn't a heading, isn't a quote, and isn't a mono label.
NAMA · IAYT · AAC
SUSAN HIERA BASS · MS, ADLC, C-IAYT
WORDMARK · 03 OF 12
Her existing wordmark. The system around it.
The italic-serif “sarasvati” and caps-sans “AYURVEDA INSTITUTE” she has used for years. Nothing replaced. Susan stays recognizable. Two clean variants ship in the kit: a dark variant for light surfaces, and the original two-color treatment (white circle, ink elephant, white wordmark) for dark surfaces and photography.
Paper
Paper deep
Aubergine
Hibiscus
Turmeric
Sage
Sandalwood
On photography
On the shala
On a paper-washed photo
FACULTY · 04 OF 12 · THE INSTITUTIONAL MOAT
Eleven teachers. One school.
Susan's faculty bench is the proof Sarasvati is an institution, not a personality. Each name surfaced. Each credential rendered.
Susan Hiera Bass
MS · ADLC · C-IAYT
Founder · School Director · Lead Instructor
Dr. Vivek Shanbhag
ND-USA · MD-AYU · BAMS
Vaidya Faculty
Vaidya Anita Misra
BAMS · MS
Faculty role per Susan
Arun Deva
DASC · AP-NAMA
Faculty role per Susan
Hiranyacharya Goverdanam
BAMS
Faculty role per Susan
David Crow
L.Ac.
Faculty role per Susan
Anjali Wynkoop
FACULTY
Faculty role per Susan
April Hansen
FACULTY
Faculty role per Susan
Mary Thompson
NAMA-CAP
Faculty role per Susan
Mamta Bhatt
FACULTY
Faculty role per Susan
Joy du Pont
AHC-NAMA · AYT-NAMA · C-IAYT
Faculty role per Susan
Sarah Gilman-Short
FACULTY
Faculty role per Susan
RECOGNIZED BY · 05 OF 12
Four credentials. One school.
Always together. Always surfaced. Institutional infrastructure, not a footer afterthought.
NAMA
IAYT
AAC
YOGA ALLIANCEPROGRAMS · 06 OF 12 · THE LADDER
From curious to practitioner to master.
The ladder Susan has been teaching for two decades, rendered as a system the brand can carry.
LEVEL 01
Foundations of Ayurveda
A 300-hour program in the classical foundations. Doshas. Dhatus. The principles of digestion and balance. The four seasons, rendered as Susan teaches them.
Begin Your ApplicationLEVEL 02
Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy
The integrated practice of Ayurveda and Yoga Therapy. Pulse reading. Constitutional analysis. Therapeutic protocol drawn from twenty-five years of clinical practice.
Begin Your ApplicationADVANCED
Practical Wisdom
Post-certification mentorship for graduating practitioners. Case studies, supervised clinical work, the deepening of practice across years.
Talk With SusanPHOTOGRAPHY · 07 OF 12
The connective tissue.
Warm grade always. Practice and place over portrait-as-mirror. Five categories: faculty headshot, lifestyle & place, symbolic & hero, recipe & teaching, ritual & documentary.
RITUAL + DOCUMENTARYThe cohort, in savasana.
SYMBOLIC + HEROHibiscus Within.
FACULTY HEADSHOTSusan, in natural light.
RECIPE + TEACHINGA spring drink, in season.
SYMBOLIC + HEROThe pulse, listened to.
FACULTY HEADSHOTDr. Vivek Shanbhag.
SYMBOLIC + HEROThe teacher, with the rose.
BRAND IN THE WILDThe brand, as Susan already runs it.
FACULTY HEADSHOTVaidya Anita Misra.
RECIPE + TEACHINGCoriander & cilantro, the carrier herbs.
SYMBOLIC + HEROThe sundial, the seashell.
LINEAGE · 08 OF 12
The lineage Susan teaches in.
The study of Ayurveda traces through three foundational texts. Charaka Saṃhitā, attributed to the sage Charaka, organizes the internal medicine canon. Suśruta Saṃhitā catalogs the surgical practice of its time. Krishnamacharya, much later, threads Yoga and Ayurveda together as one continuous practice. Susan teaches in this lineage. The brand carries it as structure, not as decoration.
SEASONAL PULSE · 09 OF 12 · FOUR SEASONS, AS SUSAN TEACHES
Four seasons. One continuous cycle.
Susan teaches Ayurveda on a four-season pulse. The seasonal frame is the spine of the Foundations program: move with the rhythms and cycles of nature.
SPRING SEASON · KAPHA
(placeholder for Susan's actual seasonal language) Move with the rhythms and cycles of nature. Spring asks for lightness, warmth, movement.
AUTUMN SEASON · VATA
(placeholder for Susan's actual seasonal language) The dry winds settle in. Ground with warm oils, root vegetables, steady routine.
VOICE · 10 OF 12 · IN SUSAN'S OWN WORDS
The register Susan has been writing in for two decades.
Lead phrases. Use verbatim.
- “soul nourishment”
- “real and true and time tested”
- “the wisdom of the ancients that is already inside of you”
- “the ancient, sacred art of nourishing the body, mind and spirit”
- “connection to nature and YOU are a part of nature”
- “sweet special community built for this purpose”
- “wisdom of the elders deep within yourself”
Banned. Drift detection.
- sacred feminine→community-rooted, lineage-honoring
- my journey, my teaching→we, the institute
- soul-led, intuitive wisdom→wisdom of the ancients
- tribe, sister, goddess→community, students
- big container, transformation portal→Foundations, the program
- optimize, biohack, leverage→balance, rhythm, knowing
- 3 steps to, in just 30 days→a way of life, ongoing study
SUSAN AS TEACHER · 11 OF 12
The school is its founder, and the founder is the school.
Twenty-five years of clinical practice. NAMA board-certified. C-IAYT credentialed. MS in Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine from Maharishi International University. A research collaboration with Kaiser Permanente. A book, The Genes of God, that holds the lineage in print.
SUSAN HIERA BASS · MS · ADLC · C-IAYT
CROSS-SURFACE · 12 OF 12
One brand. Four expressions.
The school, the book, the app, and Susan as teacher all read as the same Sarasvati. Different surface, same system.
The school site
sarasvatiayurveda.comPaper. Ink. Turmeric warmth. Hibiscus CTAs. Faculty grid, accreditation bar, lineage citations above the fold.
The book site
thegenesofgod.comAubergine and turmeric dominant. The book site is the proof Susan runs the full palette. The school inherits its confidence.
The app, planned
freemium · premiumPaper and ink primary. Turmeric and hibiscus reserved for premium markers. Photography and seasonal pulse carry the warmth.
Susan as teacher
speaking · podcast · faculty bioWordmark, accreditation row, two-sentence credential paragraph. The Sarasvati treatment travels with Susan onto other platforms.